Indebted
by ShazzyZhang
Summary: Direct sequel to my story "Reversal." Daryl suddenly finds himself with a debt he's not sure that he can repay.


_AN: Well, let's pay back Carol for saving Daryl's life shall we? I'm supposed to be writing scripts but that seems boring and I have to edit a huge amount out because it makes no sense. ANYWAY. This is the direct sequel to "Reversal" so... if you haven't read that one, go read it or else this makes so little sense._

_Cheers._

_-Shazzy_

**Indebted**

No one quite understood the sudden change in him. Something had happened, it was obvious, but no one knew what. He had suddenly become a little more attentive, a little more _protective_ and a lot less rough around the edges. Especially when he was around her. It had happened seemingly overnight, suddenly he was a new person.

It was surprising, though, to see the dramatic change. He smiled a bit more. He was less abrasive. He seemed to care.

And no one knew why.

Daryl hovered around Carol whenever he could. Rarely did he let her out of his sight. He moved closer, keeping his work with him and following her like a puppy.

She didn't mind. She was happy to have the company. It gave her someone to talk to while she did her chores.

They talked, about mundane things, about how they hoped to find an end to the suffering living in the world with the walkers, how much of a pain the walkers had become, about leaving the farm. But they never talked about what had happened with the walker in the woods.

Carol wasn't sure if she'd embarrassed him, but he didn't want to talk about it. She was still proud of herself, two shots in the head under extremely stressful circumstances was not something that just anyone could do. Especially someone with no training whatsoever. Daryl assured her that she'd done all right. She still felt a little nagging voice in the back of her mind that suggested that maybe he wasn't entirely okay with the fact that she'd saved him.

"_I owe you."_

The words echoed in her mind.

She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by it, or how he'd pay her back for saving his life, but the words were there. And now, so was he.

Daryl wouldn't tell anyone what had happened. In his opinion, there was no need to worry the rest of the group. A single walker when they were out hunting wasn't a big deal. His close brush with a gruesome death was even less of a topic of conversation that he wanted to breach. He definitely didn't want Rick to know exactly how close he'd been to having his face eaten off.

Daryl shuddered at the thought.

So he stayed closer to Carol than ever. It was the least he could do. He offered to help her with whatever tasks she was doing, but she adamantly refused him, insisting that she was adept at doing her chores.

So he hovered whenever he could. He would sit quietly, sharpening branches into bolts for his crossbow, or simply sit quietly and keep an eye on her.

And he always invited her out hunting with him.

After a week of his hovering, Carol finally had to ask him.

"Why are you following me?"

Daryl stared at her. They were tending the garden behind the Greene's house, pulling weeds and picking vegetables. She'd relented and allowed him to help her just so that he would have something to occupy his time with.

"What d'you mean?" Daryl asked defensively.

Carol smiled. "You've been following me around for a week, acting like nothing happened. You invite me to go hunt with you almost every day. It's flattering, and I appreciate your company, but don't you have other things that need to be done?"

Daryl shrugged. "I just thought..."

"Daryl, it's okay." Carol interrupted. "I'm capable of doing these things alone. I'm not in any danger and I've been doing laundry and tending the garden alone for weeks. I understand that you think you owe me, but really, wouldn't you have done the same for me?"

Daryl stopped completely, staring helplessly at the woman before him. She was right. It wasn't a matter of 'owing' her. He _would_ have done the same thing had their positions been reversed. But that was beside the point. She had _saved_ him. Without so much as a word. She could have called out, said something, but she chose to deal with it herself. And had she missed... Well, Daryl had taken a bullet before, but it would have complicated things even more.

And he still felt like he owed her more than he could ever give her.

"There are just some debts that need to be repaid." Daryl said quietly.

Carol looked at him, her face carefully blank.

"Daryl," she said quietly. "You're looking at it the wrong way. If anything, I have repaid my debt to you by saving you from that walker." She smiled. "You saved my life when Sophia went missing. You saved my life when we found her. If you hadn't been there, I'd have let her take me to death. So don't keep beating yourself up, hovering and trying to repay a debt."

She stood with her arms full of vegetables and smiled down at him. "I saved your life in return for all the times that you saved _mine._"


End file.
